HRM or Endomondo for accuracy

zezelryck

Having read many comments about HRM's on MFP forums I bought one some a while back. I was told by Polar the makers of the HRM that it wouldn't give me an accurate figure as I was on beta blockers. I tried out a few apps and found Endomondo about the simplest for me to understand and have been using it for a few months now. I have recently had open heart surgery done and am out and about walking and doing my best to recover without over doing it. Since having the operation done, I have been taken off the beta blockers, so today I decided to do my walk using both Endomondo on my smart phone, and my HRM. Endmondo reported that I had burned 324 Kcal's, but using the "Calories Burned By Heart Rate" calculator (found here http://www.calories-calculator.net/Calories_Burned_By_Heart_Rate.html), and the time and average heart rate reading from my HRM, I get a figure of 418kcals burned for my walk. Any body have any informed opinions on which figure I should use?

Thanks

MikeInAZ

Which Polar model did you get? I've been using the H7 with the iCardio/Digifit app. It's a great combo. If you only care about Calories burned, then this will be accurate enough. I really don't know what beta blockers have to do with it.

I don't concentrate so much on calories burned any more. Now it's about minutes in the Yellow and Orange zone. Also how quickly my heart recovers after vigorous exercise. The Digifit app tells me that.

Sure, I like to know that I burned 600 calories during my workout. But I'm more interested in how intense it was. This tells me I'm getting stronger. The "recovery mode" helps me understand how quickly I recover and tells me again that I'm getting stronger.

Otherwise, I would suggest that the HRM isn't that accurate anyway. I have the H7 which also syncs with my FT7 watch, syncs with the Polar Beats app, the Digifit App, and the treadmill at the gym. When I run all of them at the same time, I get 4 different readings for my calories burned, they can vary by up to 100 calories. So I think it really depends on the computer crunching the numbers, not the fact that it's a heart rate monitor.

In summary, more time in the Orange Zone = more calories burned and stronger heart and lungs.

zezelryck

Thanks for that Mike, I got the Polar FT1 which is really basic. I may update it and get myself the FT7

MikeInAZ

Thanks for that Mike, I got the Polar FT1 which is really basic. I may update it and get myself the FT7

Good deal on Amazon only $54 - http://bit.ly/polarh7